Plastic Farm #11

Another issue of Plastic Farm, part of the haul from the SPACE convention.

Title: Plastic Farm
Issue: #11
Date: September 2005
Publisher: Plastic Farm Press
Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Rafer Roberts, Dave Morgan, Danielle Corsetto
Copy Editor: Nan Roberts

Five in-continuity short stories here, plus a Rafer Roberts backup story that's outside of the Plastic Farm universe.

Lots of cannibalism this issue. Plus some connections established between previous chapters, and some new characters and situations introduced.

Artist Danielle Corsetto's work on the love-gone-wrong story "The Flavor of My Love" was a perfect fit for this disturbing bit of black comedy.

I thought the other segments fell short of providing the kind of connections that I was hoping for this issue, although Roberts did manage to tie in one of the most obvious unconnected threads from a previous issue, and he revisited another.

I also really enjoyed the bit of poetry that is read by one of the characters in the opening scene. It's a nice bit of character development, and holds its own pretty well as a poem.

The final backup story was a a pretty amusing piece, mostly for its use of language, and the protagonist gets some firsthand experience in becoming "wooby".

Finally, worth noting in this issue is a two-page letter from Dave Sim with advice on distribution and marketing of independent comics. It's a bit dated at this point, but still worth a look as Mr. Sim goes into considerable detail on his perceptions of the challenges of distributing to the retail market and the question of when to move to a trade paperback offering.

Rating: 7/10